What has me a little cautious/pessimistic is that the regular 3L only makes 200 HP. The swap with SE heads will give higher compression ratio to the tune of 10 to 15 HP above value with 3L heads, but you have to subtract to account for the fact that the 3L heads should breathe better plus the fact that the 3L exhaust manifold has no precats. It seems to me that one really shouldn't be expecting to get more than 200 to 205 HP at the crank for a 3L block with SE heads - similar HP to stock 2.5L SVT, but 35 to 40 ft-lbs more torque. Doing headers and exhaust at same time might net 220 HP at crank.
I'm willing to buy the argument that the better breathing and hotter cams of the SVT heads are good for 20 HP - that would place a 3L/SVT heads in the 220 HP range which is consistent with the 185 to 190 FWHP that was reported by Roger before any other exhaust or intake mods were done.
In my mind the interesting question for non-SVT owners and who don't want to change pistons is whether to use the 3L heads (better breathing but lower compression) or the SE heads (trade breathing for compression).
But as Brad points out, too few data points so only speculation for now.
Eric
